Per Kirkeby has created unforgettable works of art, some of which were commissioned for three of Lars von Trier’s films. After watching all of von Trier’s theatrical releases over the last three months, I kept returning to Kirkeby’s digitally-altered landscapes in Breaking the Waves (1996) for inspiration.

To avoid spoilers, I’m including screenshots only of the latter half of each episode/chapter intro. Watch the movie for the full effect! NOTE: Von Trier films are not for the faint of heart.

My fifth annual list of summer movies, the June edition. Monsters U and Man of Steel are the two wide-release films I’m interested in this month. For previews and synopses, go to Rotten Tomatoes Upcoming Movies.

My fifth annual list of summer movies. More to come… this is just for May so far. I must be getting picky—there are only four wide-release films on my list (see asterisks). On the other hand, it’s nice that there are twenty-six films in May alone that seem to be worth watching. For previews and synopses, go to Rotten Tomatoes Upcoming Movies.

Since seeing the film (twice) the week it came out in October, I’ve been entralled with the ideas presented in Cloud Atlas – in both the book (by David Mitchell in 2004) and the movie (screenplay and direction by the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer). I hate to give too much of a movie away, so I will simply encourage you to see this film if you’re interested in stories that mix genres and challenge your perception of the world. It’s also the fastest-paced 172-minute film I’ve ever seen. I’m currently a few chapters into the book, so I can’t say too much about it other than that I’m amazed by the heartfelt dialogue.

Cloud Atlas explores how the actions and consequences of individual lives impact one another through the past, the present and the future.

Action, mystery and romance weave dramatically through the story as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and a single act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution in the distant future.

Literally all of the main characters, except one, are reincarnations of the same soul in different bodies throughout the novel identified by a birthmark… that’s just a symbol really of the universality of human nature. The title itself “Cloud Atlas,” the cloud refers to the ever changing manifestations of the Atlas, which is the fixed human nature which is always thus and ever shall be. So the book’s theme is predacity, the way individuals prey on individuals, groups on groups, nations on nations, tribes on tribes. So I just take this theme and in a sense reincarnate that theme in another context.